A free ONLINE educational content hub for kids

Although Bangla is our mother tongue, many early grader children struggle to learn Bangla. According to Ministry of Education's National Student Assessment 2013, 25 per cent of students in grade III cannot read short, simple, mostly imaginative texts, locate and interpret directly stated information, identify correct word orders of simple sentences, identify the meaning and correct spelling of high frequency words, recognize correct use of some punctuation in Bangla. In order to improve Bangla reading skill of early grade children in Bangladesh, a project titled 'Reading Enhancement for Advancing Development (READ) is being implemented by Save the Children in Bangladesh and supported by USAID. Since its inception, READ has been trying to produce interactive reading materials that can motivate children to learn to read.

About 8.5 million people in Bangladesh use smartphones, and the number is increasing day by day. Realising this, READ project has developed a 'Reading Hub' (ict.readbangladesh.org). This reading hub contains text-Book Based e-Content, approved by National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB), 169 supplementary reading materials or story books for children, three interactive learning android apps for the students of grade I-III, and all these can be accessed and downloaded for free. According to the government approximately 19,067,761 children were enrolled in primary level educational institutions, and 527,798 teachers are employed in government primary schools and newly nationalised primary schools in Bangladesh. The 'Reading Hub' and the READ Android Apps (for grade I-III students) can help all children who get enrolled in primary level education in Bangladesh every year with its text-Book based e-Content, PDF story books, and interactive teaching-learning games, and the teachers as well.

READ project not only caters the students, but also the teachers of primary schools. In order to build the capacity to use 'Reading Hub' and READ Android App in classroom, READ project has trained 2250 teachers from 2250 multimedia equipped schools across Bangladesh. Anyone can access 'Reading Hub' (ict.readbangladesh.org) anytime. Realising the importance of supplementary reading materials or story books role on a child's mental development, 'Reading Hub' offers 169 supplementary reading materials for the children of grade I-III, These quality reading materials and story books are exclusively developed under the supervision of READ Project. Among these 169 books 124 books are written in Bangla and 45 books are in Chakma, Marma, Kokborok (Tripura) to encourage reading habit amongst the indigenous children. Considering the reading capacity of the first to third grade students, these 169 supplementary reading materials or story books have been divided into 0 to 6 levels.

Source: thedailystar